"Sore spot touched I guess."

I was actualy having a chortle with my wife Pete, but if it makes you happy...as you like to say.

"Ah well - I'm not attacking anyone"

Though calling someone a fake isn't considered complimentary in my experience...but you and I certainly seem to have different ideas so I guess I could be wrong.

"Do you insist that I should enjoy them too. Compulsory belief is what the Imans want."

You just attempted a 'strawman argument', in common parlance.

It goes like this:

Today's little exercise in the 'Real World According To Pete' breaks down pretty simply

Pete Real: "Modern Folk Festivals are fake with no meaning"

Morfe: "Not completely, here's an example, and I am not fake"

Pete Real: You *believe* you are right, meanwhile I *am* right", Parlour Pagans! Festivals fake - football REAL!

Morfe: If I adopted your critical methods, I would say modern football is fake as not all football fans know what it's like to be paid 6 million a year. but I don't, and I don't *believe that* football fans arenominally and collectively fake either.

Pete real: Ooo, touched a sore spot. You Muslim Patriarch Dictator!

*******
You then go on to say:

"You have quoted Cherokee wisdom and I often use it myself."

Yet I was only using it to demonstrate that the traditional use of the word 'sacred' may be a bit blurry compared to our modern take on it.

"But how many modern Cherokees know of it or believe in it? Their day has gone and what remains?"

Their words, beliefs? Their words touch others who feel the same way? Just a wild guess..

"But none of them really believe what their fathers believed"

None of them? Prove it. not that it matters, but 'none' is quite a small amount in a big Nation.

"do you?"

Do I believe that water is sacred, you mean? Or that we and the land are connected? yes.

Do I believe the myth about the owl and the cougar?

No, and I don't live amongst cougars, but i believe that folk tales are important fables and an enchanting way to teach our children, just as Roy Of The Rangers enchanted my schoolmates, except I was more into Willard Price's 'Diving Adventure'

Yes things do change, all the time and we all feel subtly or vastly differently about our role and that of the world around us. What I don't understand is how you believe yourself to be an authority on how other individuals feel, or what they believe.